


All That's Left

by a_nonny_moose



Series: Markiplier TV AU [88]
Category: Markiplier Egos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-06
Updated: 2019-12-06
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:01:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21687253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/a_nonny_moose/pseuds/a_nonny_moose
Summary: Everyone's dying-- but Bim has a plan.
Series: Markiplier TV AU [88]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1021818
Comments: 1
Kudos: 13





	All That's Left

“You still haven’t found them?”  


“No,” Wilford sighed, holding his hands out. Between them, a faint spark of pink. “They’re all but gone, Doc.”  


Dr. Iplier made some hurried notes. “We’re all fading faster than I thought,” he muttered, feverish. He looked like he hadn’t slept in days. 

Wilford sat back in his chair across the Doctor’s desk, dropping his hands tiredly. “All?” He still held himself a little too straight, as if he was trying to fill Dark’s place. 

Dark hadn’t come out of his office in months, since Mark left the office for good. The rest of them were growing weaker, the channel finally abandoned. 

Dr. Iplier held his hands up. A blue glow, almost white, but so weak that Wil could barely see it under the florescent clinic lights. “Mine are going,” he said, simply, acceptance. He put his notes down, looking across at Wilford. “This is all that’s left.”

Wilford rubbed his forehead, forcing himself to ask the question. “How... how long?”

“A few months. Maybe less.” Dr. Iplier paused. “Are you... going to be okay, when we’re gone?”  


Wilford looked up, sharply. A beat passed in tense silence. “I’ll be fine,” Wilford growled. 

Dr. Iplier didn’t bring it up again. 

<hr>

It had been almost a year. Mark didn’t visit anymore. Dark didn’t come out of his room. Dr. Iplier had enlisted the Googles to make sure everyone was alive, at least twice a day, and so they made their rounds.

Dark’s door was first, as it always was. “Hello?” Google_B knocked, stiff-backed as ever. His joints squeaked. “Dark? It is me.”

“I’m alive,” came the answering growl. “Go away.”  


And so Google_B left the plate of food outside Dark’s door, untouched, and moved on. 

“Host?”   


No response.

He’d been quiet a few days.

Nothing to worry about, a voice whispered in the back of Oliver’s head. A purple wash of light. 

Nothing to worry about.

And so Oliver left the plate of food outside the Host’s door, untouched, and moved on. 

“Wilford?” Google_R stepped into the studio, chest glowing in the low light. “Bim?”

The two of them floated down from the ceiling, Bim supporting Wilford. They sat, however briefly, at the prop table to eat. 

“How are you?” Google_R sat, almost limp, eyes flashing in frustration. It took so much effort, now.   


“Fine,” Bim piped up, scarfing down food. He seemed bright-eyed as ever, almost unusually alert. “You?” His mouth full of food, he looked between Wilford and Google_R.   


“You’ve been with me all day,” Wilford muttered, a half smile twisting his face. “I’m all right.” He was nearly gray, now, more drained than he should have been.   


Nothing to worry about. 

Bim and Wilford zipped off again, working on Wilford’s seven hundredth backup plan to bring them all back. And so Google_R could only sigh, and take their empty plates, and move on. 

Google_G was sitting with Dr. Iplier when the other three Googles came in, two of them empty-handed. 

“No luck?”  


Google_B and Oliver shook their heads, beeping. Oliver looked as if he was about to say something, then stopped himself. 

Google_R set the empty plates down, catching himself on a chair. Google_G whirred in concern, jumping up to catch him. 

“I am all right,” Google_R murmured, shaking his head.   


“How is everyone, Googs?” Dr. Iplier held a pen over a checklist, almost resigned.  


“Dark is alive.”  


“Nothing to worry about.”  


“They’re fine.”  


Dr. Iplier scribbled it all down, ticking boxes. “All right,” he sighed, finally. He cast his papers and pen down, running a hand over his face. “Go recharge, Googs.”

“You ought to sleep, Doctor.” Google_G reached out to take his shoulder. “And refuel.”  


“I will, I will,” Dr. Iplier muttered, waving him off. The Googles sat for a moment more, taking in the silence.   


“Take care of yourself,” Google_B finally murmured, crossing his arms. With a series of whirrs and squeaks, Google_G almost tripping, the four of them trooped out.  


Dr. Iplier turned the main clinic lights off, sitting at his desk by the light of a lamp. Slowly, slowly, he dropped off to sleep.

<hr>

Bim stepped into his room, free of Wilford for the day, and relaxed. The Host’s silver tongue, his honeyed words, his golden power, slipped out of him. The air shimmered. Dr. Iplier’s blue, Wilford’s pink, stolen from their respective owners with a kiss, swirled in the darkness around him. Bim breathed it in.

He’d seduced the others, taken their power, and he wasn’t even sure that he was Bim anymore. No, now, he felt like so much more.

His eyes flashed purple, and Bim felt himself hunger. _More._

He stepped out into the hallway, looking both ways. He was alone, save for the whispers lingering in the air. Bim started down the stairs. 

He didn’t even shiver anymore, this past week, sneaking out in the dead silence of the office after dark. No, the power had chosen him, and he was doing what had to be done. 

_Knock knock._

“I’m alive. Go away.”  


“It’s me.”  


Bim stepped into Dark’s room as he had every night for the past few days, stepping around the flat, dark puddles of smoke lining the walls. Dark looked up as he entered, the door slamming, leaving them in shadow. Moonlight.

“I want to try again.”  


“Don’t be ridiculous,” Dark growled, running his hands through his hair. “One, it won’t save you. Two, you’re clearly not ready.”  


“Try me.” Bim smirked, leaning over Dark’s desk. His aura slowly spilled out of him, overflowing, warm, electric. But as it did, the glamour dropped. Bim hadn’t been sleeping, had been wearing himself thin trying to steal the others’ power. He was gaunt, pale, and as Dark glanced up, he could’ve sworn he was looking into a mirror.

“Bim--”

“Please.” Desperation, the pull of the Host’s power, Bim’s aura, Wilford’s familiarity. Every tool Bim had at his disposal. 

Dark stood, pacing across the room, and turned to face Bim. 

Bim wore a look of thinly-veiled triumph, and held his hands out. “I’m ready.”  


Dark took a breath.

One.

The smoke in the room swirled around the two of them, forming a whirlpool in between them. There was a howling, a ringing. Dark held his hands out, rotten limbs shaking with the effort. 

Dark opened his eyes, black.

Two.

The smoke started to coalesce, the outline of a dog, a wolf, something _worse_ , snapping and writhing. Three heads outlined in the smoke, glowing, white fangs, deep red eyes. Dark’s voice broke. “Steady.”

Bim took a step forward. 

Three. 

The massive hound stepped back, towards Dark, her eyes on Bim, growling, snarling. 

Bim’s aura washed forwards, purple, pink and blue and gold caught between the waves. It was rain, the promise of cool water underneath a rippling, silent surface. Promises, promises, and little else. 

_Let me in._

The dog paused, and Bim smiled, edging forwards again, step by step. She huffed, jowls shaking, and Bim could see fury trapped in every line of her limbs. She was huge, her head brushing the ceiling, but gaunt, like Dark, like Bim, like all of them, now. A lone, starving wolf eyeing up a bison. 

She’d lost. 

Bim reached forwards enough to put his hand to her chest, the highest part of her that he could reach. He raked his fingers through her fur. 

“Shh,” he whispered, and even Dark felt his heart skip a beat. The power had chosen him. “I can give you anything,” Bim mouthed, looking up at her. His power, coursing with stolen magic, was proof enough of that. Bim held all the cards.

Well, all but one.

Dark’s aura snarled at him, dipping her head down to sniff at Bim’s hand. Her mouth opened, hot breath, breathing gray smoke. 

“Bim.” Dark, warning, feeling the pull.  


“No,” Bim insisted, desperation lining his voice. “No, this’ll work.”  


Dark’s aura huffed, dangerous, and took a step back, turning her head in disdain.

“No.” Bim moved with her, forward, a dance. “Let me in.” Begging.  


“Bim,” Dark started to shout, but the smoke started to swirl again, picking up to a whistle around the walls.  


The dog snarled, warning, and froze. Bim’s hand brushed against her fur again. His aura pelted her in waves, but they didn’t seem to break against her limbs. 

“Let me in.” Demanding. Bim moves faster, now, matching her step for step and then some. Advancing. 

With a growl, she lunges. 

<hr>

Bim wakes up to daylight, streaming through the windows of Dark’s room. He picks himself up with a groan, looking around the room.

Light hasn’t touched this floor in months. Dark’s storm, his aura, has been blacking out the windows since Mark announced his leave of the office. But Bim can see outside, now, and there are birds, and sunlight.

He looks around the office, the sunlight glancing off a chess set, Dark’s desk, the fake, shriveled plants. Dark sitting at his desk, silhouetted. Bim scrambles to his feet. “D-Dark?”

Dark looks up, slow. As Bim’s eyes adjust to the light, he realizes that Dark is just sitting there, staring at him. Doing nothing. Empty, and hollow. Bim stumbles back a step. Dark’s skin is rotted away, and when he smiles, it’s a painful, tight-lipped smile. He’s frail and _dead_ under his suit, and as Bim looks at him, Dark nods. “Well done, Bim.”  


“Well--” Bim holds up his hands, and it’s only now that he sees the smoke wisping around his fingers, the low, three-toned voice in his ear, the growl rumbling his chest.   


_He did it._

Bim looks up, eyes wide. “Now what?”

Dark laughs, thin and weak. “What did you expect? A plan?” With what’s left of his strength, he sneers. “You win, Bim.” He sits back. “Go. Make the most of it.”

And Bim leaves Dark in his chair to rot.


End file.
